WhatsApp: 2 billion users

The most popular messenger in the world is WhatsApp. The number of its monthly users exceeds the population of China and, until recently, this figure was growing. But the application has been accused of transferring user data to Facebook owners, and although messenger representatives deny everything, millions of people are switching to Telegram and other competitors. So far, this is a drop in the bucket, but that may soon change.
WhatsApp has become popular because of the flexibility of communication, the ability to create groups for business, blogs and media. In Asian countries, the messenger is used as a full-fledged social network and news source, and many people make a lot of money on it.

Facebook Messenger: 1.3 billion users

Second position goes to Facebook Messenger. The application with 1.3 billion users was originally a part of the social network Facebook, but in 2011 it became a separate service with advanced features. Some people think that Messenger is too complicated and cumbersome - and this is partly true. However, this doesn't prevent people all over the world from running their own businesses, communicating with relatives and friends, advertising products, doing themed newsletters and various useful chatbots for fun or making money with Facebook Messenger.

WeChat: 1.2 billion users

Closes the top three WeChat. This messenger is almost unknown to users from the European part of Russia, but has long been the main application for China and other Asian countries. Through WeChat, you can not only communicate and exchange messages, videos, and stickers. It is a full-fledged - and official - payment system for utilities, ordering cabs, food, goods, and services. WeChat has grown a bit in the last year, and those numbers are almost 40 million users growth. For other messengers below these are huge values, but against the background of 1.2 billion people another 40 million is a drop in the ocean. It is possible to predict the growth of WeChat, because there is still a large untapped audience in Asia. But there is another popular application, which we will talk about below.

QQ: 648 million users

Another popular messenger in China has long been QQ. The application is available in 80 other countries around the world, where it is also popular, but the main market for QQ remains China. In addition to messaging, the messenger has online games, personal blogs, account and avatar decorations, online shopping and fast payments Over the past year, QQ has lost users - in 2019 the monthly audience was 731 million users, in 2020 it fell to 648 million. For such a size this is a serious slump, and for comparison, imagine that the entire population of Turkey or Germany gave up using this messenger.

Telegram: 500 million users

The year 2020 was a time when Telegram took off. Back in April, the creator of the service Pavel Durov reported 400 million users, and a couple of days ago this figure exceeded 500 million. At the same time in three days the messenger received 25 million people from Asia, Europe and Latin America. All of them, as Durov assures, came for privacy and security. Among these 25 million people, which is equal to the population of North Korea or Madagascar, there were two presidents: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro registered in Telegram. Telegram is considered one of the safest messengers in the world. Roskomnadzor tried for a long time to block it, but then gave up and now uses it itself along with officials. Until recently, there were no video calls on Telegram, but with the pandemic, they quickly appeared. In addition to varied communication, the messenger is famous for channels and themed groups, and because of its data security, many independent and banned media outlets use it as their main platform for broadcasting.

Snapchat: 433 million users

Snapchat is also showing good growth. In 2019, the messenger had 398 million users, and in 2020, the figure increased to 433 million. The large audience of Snapchat is in the United States (80 million users), but in other regions, including the CIS countries, this application is quite popular - mainly among young people under 19 years old. A trick Snapchat - short videos and modern multimedia messages with photos and captions. There is also the classic correspondence, but most people like Snapchat specifically for video content and an abundance of photo editing tools.